Download or read book Societal and Economic Impacts of Paid Family Leave written by Mariam Khan and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the past several decades, paid family leave has emerged as a policy issue at the intersection of work and life, which is affecting many working families, particularly during the period of childbirth. According to U.S. Census Bureau data, 56 percent of women worked full-time during pregnancy from 2006 to 2008, and among women who worked during pregnancy, 64 percent were actively working less than one month before childbirth and 59 percent returned to work less than three months after childbirth. As the number of single parent households and the number of women participating in the labor force increased over the last three decades, the demand for paid family leave from employers or government has grown. Researchers have found that paid family leave has a number of health and economic benefits. This dissertation builds upon on an existing body of research by examining whether paid family leave improves two measures related to quality of life: child health and mothers' employment and work schedules. Further, this study examines a potential political precursor to the passage of paid family leave laws, namely the proportion of female legislative representation. Together, these studies enhance our understanding of how paid family leave affects the well-being of working families and the factors that predict its passage into law. One of the unique aspects of this research is that is that the effects of paid paternity leave are examined, which has not received adequate attention in the existing literature. The overarching theme and motivation of this dissertation is the availability of paid family leave and is introduced in Chapter 1. Chapter 2 examines the effects of the availability of paid family leave on the health outcomes of children. This study uses country-level balanced panel data from the 35 OECD countries from 1990 to 2016. Using an event study design, the study finds an approximately 1.9 to 5.2 percent decrease in country-level infant, neonatal, and under-five mortality rates following the adoption of paid maternity leave. However, the impact of the implementation of paid paternity leave was not as apparent as that of paid maternity leave, which may be attributed to its recency and amount that is much smaller than that of the more common maternity leave. An increase in the length of paid paternity leave was found to have a measurable impact on the health outcomes of children. An important finding of this study is that it takes at least two years for paid family leave to have an effect on the health outcomes of children, indicating that there is a delayed impact after the enactment of paid family leave legislation.Chapter 3 examines the impact of the paid family leave on female labor market outcomes, including being employed, working full-time, number of hours worked, and whether mothers actually utilized the paid family leave program. The study uses individual-level, cross-sectional data in the United States from the 2000 to 2019 waves of the Current Population Survey's Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) and a triple difference-in-difference estimator. The results show that the adoption of state paid family leave improves the labor market outcomes for mothers with an infant. Mothers with infants in states with paid family leave are 0.6 percent more likely to be employed, 0.6 percent more likely to work full-time, and work 0.8 more hours compared to mothers with infants in states without paid family leave. However, the results also show that the adoption of state paid family leave decreases the labor market outcomes for mothers with both an infant and child. When mothers with both an infant and a child live in states with paid family leave, they are 3 percent less likely to be employed, 2.2 percent less likely to work full-time, and work 1.3 fewer hours compared to mothers with both an infant and a child in states without paid family leave. This may suggest that paid family leave is inadvertently worsening the labor market outcomes for mothers with multiple children. From the results on the utilization of paid family leave, it appears that some mothers may be hesitant to use such leave, which may be attributed to fears associated with taking paid family leave.Chapter 4 examines whether the female legislative representation has a measurable effect on the likelihood of whether a U.S. state adopts friendly work-family policies. The study examines 50 U.S. states from 2000 to 2016 using a linear probability model with data from the Michigan State University's Correlates of State Policy Project. The study finds that when states have more than 25 percent females in the state legislature and the governor is a female, they do not experience a statistically significant increase in the likelihood of passing friendly work-family laws. The results may suggest that an increase in the passive representation of women does not always result in active representation. According to representation theories in the literature, passive representation leading to active representation only occurs when three conditions are met: 1) the policy area needs to be salient for women; 2) women need to be the direct beneficiary of the policy; and 3) policy area needs to be gender-related. Two of these three conditions were not met in this study, which may explain the null findings. Another explanation is the extremely partisan political culture in the United States where even women-related issues are supported or opposed on party lines, regardless of the number of female legislators in any party. A number of common and interrelated policy implications emerge from the studies included in chapters 2 through 4, which are presented in Chapter 5, Summary and Conclusion. The lagged impact of paid family leave suggests that both the employees and employers need to be educated with the availability of and access to paid family leave and both should be aware of their rights and responsibilities. Compliance of the employers with paid family leave has been an issue with the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which is on a non-paid basis, and it can be expected to be even worse for paid family leave. Thus, the government would need to come up with better and effective enforcement mechanisms. Fears associated with the utilization of paid family leave, which include impediment to career advancement or even losing job, would need to be mitigated in order to realize the benefits of paid family leave. Finally, the lack of a linkage between female legislative representation and the adoption of friendly work-family legislation may indicate that merely large female legislative representation is not sufficient and the success of such legislation may depend on the buy-in of the public. It needs to be better communicated that paid family leave is beneficial to both employees and employer alike, and paid family leave is a value proposition to businesses and employers.Overall, the findings of this research can be used to educate stakeholders on the need, justification, challenges, benefits, and a general framework for the development and implementation of paid family leave.

Download or read book Family Leave Policy The Political Economy of Work and Family in America written by Steven K. Wisensale and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-05-15 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written in an accessible, case study format, this groundbreaking work explores the formulation, implementation, and evaluation of family leave policy in the United States, from its beginnings at the state level in the early 1980s, through the adoption of the federal Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, and beyond to the present day. With a political economy perspective, the book identifies the major economic and social forces affecting both the family and the workplace. And drawing on original primary research, it examines how the political system has responded to this evolving issue with various policy initiatives.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Women and the Economy written by Susan L. Averett and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-15 with total page 889 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The transformation of women's lives over the past century is among the most significant and far-reaching of social and economic phenomena, affecting not only women but also their partners, children, and indeed nearly every person on the planet. In developed and developing countries alike, women are acquiring more education, marrying later, having fewer children, and spending a far greater amount of their adult lives in the labor force. Yet, because women remain the primary caregivers of children, issues such as work-life balance and the glass ceiling have given rise to critical policy discussions in the developed world. In developing countries, many women lack access to reproductive technology and are often relegated to jobs in the informal sector, where pay is variable and job security is weak. Considerable occupational segregation and stubborn gender pay gaps persist around the world. The Oxford Handbook of Women and the Economy is the first comprehensive collection of scholarly essays to address these issues using the powerful framework of economics. Each chapter, written by an acknowledged expert or team of experts, reviews the key trends, surveys the relevant economic theory, and summarizes and critiques the empirical research literature. By providing a clear-eyed view of what we know, what we do not know, and what the critical unanswered questions are, this Handbook provides an invaluable and wide-ranging examination of the many changes that have occurred in women's economic lives.

Download or read book Unfinished Business written by Ruth Milkman and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2013-11-15 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unfinished Business documents the history and impact of California’s paid family leave program, the first of its kind in the United States, which began in 2004. Drawing on original data from fieldwork and surveys of employers, workers, and the larger California adult population, Ruth Milkman and Eileen Appelbaum analyze in detail the effect of the state’s landmark paid family leave on employers and workers. They also explore the implications of California’s decade-long experience with paid family leave for the nation, which is engaged in ongoing debate about work-family policies. Unfinished Business exposes the process by which California workers and their allies built a coalition to win passage of paid family leave in the state legislature, and lays out the lessons for advocates in other states and localities, as well as the nation. Because paid leave enjoys extensive popular support across the political spectrum, campaigns for such laws have an excellent chance of success if some basic preconditions are met. Do paid family leave and similar programs impose significant costs and burdens on employers? Business interests argue that they do and routinely oppose any and all legislative initiatives in this area. Once the program took effect in California, this book shows, large majorities of employers themselves reported that its impact on productivity, profitability, and performance was negligible or positive. Milkman and Appelbaum demonstrate that the California program is well managed and easy to access, but that awareness of its existence remains limited. Moreover, those who need the program’s benefits most urgently—low-wage workers, young workers, immigrants, and disadvantaged minorities—are least likely to know about it. As a result, the long-standing pattern of inequality in access to paid leave has remained largely intact.

Download or read book Handbook of Labor Economics written by Orley Ashenfelter and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 1999-11-18 with total page 800 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A guide to the continually evolving field of labour economics.

Download or read book Pay Matters written by and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 18 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Time Out written by Helen Wilkinson and published by Demos. This book was released on 1997 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on a survey of 300 employers in the UK and a public opinion survey of attitudes toward parental leave, examines schemes in industrialized countries. Proposes a social insurance model of parental leave. Includes a cost analysis of alternative schemes.

Download or read book The Family and Medical Leave Act the Americans with Disabilities Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 written by and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 12 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Parental Leave and Beyond written by Moss, Peter and published by Policy Press. This book was released on 2020-07-15 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together contributors from 18 countries to provide international perspectives on the politics of parental leave policies in different parts of the world. Initially looking at the politics of care leave policies in eight countries across Europe, the US, Latin America and Asia, the book moves on to consider a variety of key issues in depth, including gender equality, flexibility and challenges for fathers in using leave. In the final section of the book, contributors look beyond the early parenthood period to consider possible future directions for care leave policy in order to address the wider changes and challenges that our societies face.

Download or read book Maternity and Paternity at Work written by Laura Addati and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report provides a picture of where we stand and what we have learned so far about maternity and paternity rights across the world. It offers a rich international comparative analysis of law and practice relating to maternity protection at work in 185 countries and territories, comprising leave, cash benefits, employment protection and non-discrimination, health protection, breastfeeding arrangements at work and childcare. Expanding on previous editions, it is based on an extensive set of new legal and statistical indicators, including coverage in law and in practice of paid maternity leave as well as statutory provision of paternity and parental leave and their evolution over the last 20 years. The report also takes account of the recent economic crisis and austerity measures. It shows how well national laws and practice conform to the ILO Maternity Protection Convention, 2000 (No. 183), its accompanying Recommendation (No. 191) and the Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention, 1981 (No. 156), and offers guidance on policy design and implementation. This report shows that a majority of countries have established legislation to protect and support maternity and paternity at work, even if those provisions do not always meet the ILO standards. One of the persistent challenges is the effective implementation of legislation, to ensure that all workers are able to benefit from these essential labour rights.

Download or read book The Two Income Trap written by Elizabeth Warren and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2016-04-12 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From #1 New York Times bestselling author Senator Elizabeth Warren and consultant Amelia Warren Tyagi, the classic book about America's middle class -- and why economic security remains out of reach for many. In this exposé, Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi show that modern middle-class families are increasingly trapped by the grinding reality of flat wages and rising costs. Warren and Tyagi reveal how a ferocious bidding war for housing and education has silently engulfed America's suburbs, driving up the cost of keeping families in the middle class, and placing unprecedented pressure on hard-working families. Revolutionary when it was first published in 2003, The Two-Income Trap remains disturbingly relevant today. Now with a new introduction by the authors, The Two Income Trap shows why the usual remedies won't solve the problem and points toward the policy changes that would create better opportunities for both parents and children.

Download or read book Families Caring for an Aging America written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2016-11-08 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Family caregiving affects millions of Americans every day, in all walks of life. At least 17.7 million individuals in the United States are caregivers of an older adult with a health or functional limitation. The nation's family caregivers provide the lion's share of long-term care for our older adult population. They are also central to older adults' access to and receipt of health care and community-based social services. Yet the need to recognize and support caregivers is among the least appreciated challenges facing the aging U.S. population. Families Caring for an Aging America examines the prevalence and nature of family caregiving of older adults and the available evidence on the effectiveness of programs, supports, and other interventions designed to support family caregivers. This report also assesses and recommends policies to address the needs of family caregivers and to minimize the barriers that they encounter in trying to meet the needs of older adults.

Download or read book Gender and Family Issues in the Workplace written by Francine D. Blau and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 1997-06-26 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today, as married women commonly pursue careers outside the home, concerns about their ability to achieve equal footing with men without sacrificing the needs of their families trouble policymakers and economists alike. In 1993 federal legislation was passed that required most firms to provide unpaid maternity leave for up to twelve weeks. Yet, as Gender and Family Issues in the Workplace reveals, motherhood remains a primary obstacle to women's economic success. This volume offers fascinating and provocative new analyses of women's status in the labor market, as it explores the debate surrounding parental leave: Do policies that mandate extended leave protect jobs and promote child welfare, or do they sidetrack women's careers and make them less desirable employees? An examination of the disadvantages that women—particularly young mothers—face in today's workplace sets the stage for the debate. Claudia Goldin presents evidence that female college graduates are rarely able to balance motherhood with career track employment, and Jane Waldfogel demonstrates that having children results in substantially lower wages for women. The long hours demanded by managerial and other high powered professions further penalize women who in many cases still bear primary responsibility for their homes and children. Do parental leave policies improve the situation for women? Gender and Family Issues in the Workplace offers a variety of perspectives on this important question. Some propose that mandated leave improves women's wages by allowing them to preserve their job tenure. Other economists express concern that federal leave policies prevent firms and their workers from acting on their own particular needs and constraints, while others argue that because such policies improve the well-being of children they are necessary to society as a whole. Olivia Mitchell finds that although the availability of unpaid parental leave has sharply increased, only a tiny percentage of workers have access to paid leave or child care assistance. Others caution that the current design of family-friendly policies may promote gender inequality by reinforcing the traditional division of labor within families. Parental leave policy is a complex issue embedded in a tangle of economic and social institutions. Gender and Family Issues in the Workplace offers an innovative and up-to-date investigation into women's chances for success and equality in the modern economy.

Download or read book A New Contract with the Middle Class written by Richard V. Reeves and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 51 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A better future for the middle class is no longer an aspiration. It is a necessity. The disintegration of the American Dream is more visible than ever before. The understanding—the contract—that existed between individuals willing to work and contribute and a society willing to support those individuals when they needed it is falling apart. Now is the time to draft a new contract with America's middle class. One that rewards work and service, improves upward mobility, and reduces inequality. In A New Contract with the Middle Class Brookings senior fellows Isabel Sawhill and Richard Reeves outline the foundations of what that new contract should be, based on discussions they had across the country with middle-class Americans. Sawhill and Reeves' recommendations provide solutions to issues that came up time and time again in these conversations: money, time, relationships, health, and respect. Some of the bold recommendations included in A New Contract with the Middle Class: • Eliminate virtually all income taxes paid by the middle class. • Raise the minimum wage and subsidize wages below the median with a worker tax credit. • Offer scholarships for those who undertake at least a year of national service. • Ensure four weeks of paid leave per year. • Align school and working hours and boost child care to help working parents. America is only as strong as the American middle-class. A New Contract with the Middle Class proposes a new way forward.

Download or read book Economic Dignity written by Gene Sperling and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-10-12 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Timely and important . . . It should be our North Star for the recovery and beyond.” —Hillary Clinton “Sperling makes a forceful case that only by speaking to matters of the spirit can liberals root their belief in economic justice in people’s deepest aspirations—in their sense of purpose and self-worth.” —The New York Times When Gene Sperling was in charge of coordinating economic policy in the Obama White House, he found himself surprised when serious people in Washington told him that the Obama focus on health care was a distraction because it was “not focused on the economy.” How, he asked, was the fear felt by millions of Americans of being one serious illness away from financial ruin not considered an economic issue? Too often, Sperling found that we measured economic success by metrics like GDP instead of whether the economy was succeeding in lifting up the sense of meaning, purpose, fulfillment, and security of people. In Economic Dignity, Sperling frames the way forward in a time of wrenching change and offers a vision of an economy whose guiding light is the promotion of dignity for all Americans.

Download or read book What We Owe Each Other written by Minouche Shafik and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2022-08-23 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From one of the leading policy experts of our time, an urgent rethinking of how we can better support each other to thrive Whether we realize it or not, all of us participate in the social contract every day through mutual obligations among our family, community, place of work, and fellow citizens. Caring for others, paying taxes, and benefiting from public services define the social contract that supports and binds us together as a society. Today, however, our social contract has been broken by changing gender roles, technology, new models of work, aging, and the perils of climate change. Minouche Shafik takes us through stages of life we all experience—raising children, getting educated, falling ill, working, growing old—and shows how a reordering of our societies is possible. Drawing on evidence and examples from around the world, she shows how every country can provide citizens with the basics to have a decent life and be able to contribute to society. But we owe each other more than this. A more generous and inclusive society would also share more risks collectively and ask everyone to contribute for as long as they can so that everyone can fulfill their potential. What We Owe Each Other identifies the key elements of a better social contract that recognizes our interdependencies, supports and invests more in each other, and expects more of individuals in return. Powerful, hopeful, and thought-provoking, What We Owe Each Other provides practical solutions to current challenges and demonstrates how we can build a better society—together.

Download or read book The Economic Impact of Mandated Family Leave on Small Businesses and Their Employees written by W. Steven Barnett and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: